Modern vehicles often have a large number of vehicle systems which, in turn, comprise a large number of sensors and actuators which are electrically connected to controllers of the vehicle via electrical lines.
Antilock brake systems (ABS) comprise, for example, wheel rotation-speed sensors which detect wheel rotation-speed information and transmit said wheel rotation-speed information to an associated controller (ECU, electronic control unit) of the vehicle. The controller can optimize braking performance of the vehicle based on the wheel rotation-speed information.
Active wheel suspension systems allow the driver to adjust the suspension of a vehicle, for example in order to increase driving comfort or to adapt the vehicle to different environmental conditions. To this end, control and sensor information is exchanged between the wheel suspension system and an associated vehicle controller.
For the signal interchange between the vehicle systems and the controllers that is required for this purpose, a large number of electrical lines usually have to be individually laid in the vehicle. This can lead to a considerable amount of work on account of the large number of vehicle systems. Furthermore, the individually laid electrical lines often take up a considerable amount of installation space in the vehicle.